Tyburn
06-23-2009, 08:58 PM
:blink: Remind me to avoid the Trains on my Tour :sad:
Crews have dismantled the wreckage from a US subway train collision that killed nine people and injured scores of others in Washington.
A federal investigator revealed an old train involved in the crash should have been replaced because of safety concerns.
The Metrorail transit system kept the old trains running despite warnings in 2006, said Debbie Hersman of the National Transportation Safety Board.
It was not immediately clear what caused the crash and whether age played a role in the Monday rush-hour collision.
The crash sent more than 70 people to hospitals. Metro officials said two men and seven women, all adults, were killed.
Hersman said investigators expect to recover recorders from a newer train that was stopped along the tracks waiting for another to clear the station ahead.
But the old train that went down the tracks and triggered the collision was part of ageing fleet and not equipped with the devices, which can provide valuable information on the cause of a crash.
Hersman said that the NTSB had warned of safety problems and recommended the old fleet be phased out or retrofitted to make it better withstand a crash. Neither was done, she said, which the NTSB considered "unacceptable."
Metro officials planned to replace the old trains, but were years away from them rolling on the tracks.
It was the worst crash in the history of Metrorail, the pride of the US capital's tourism industry that has shuttled tourists and commuters around Washington and to Maryland and Virginia suburbs for more than three decades.
Crews have dismantled the wreckage from a US subway train collision that killed nine people and injured scores of others in Washington.
A federal investigator revealed an old train involved in the crash should have been replaced because of safety concerns.
The Metrorail transit system kept the old trains running despite warnings in 2006, said Debbie Hersman of the National Transportation Safety Board.
It was not immediately clear what caused the crash and whether age played a role in the Monday rush-hour collision.
The crash sent more than 70 people to hospitals. Metro officials said two men and seven women, all adults, were killed.
Hersman said investigators expect to recover recorders from a newer train that was stopped along the tracks waiting for another to clear the station ahead.
But the old train that went down the tracks and triggered the collision was part of ageing fleet and not equipped with the devices, which can provide valuable information on the cause of a crash.
Hersman said that the NTSB had warned of safety problems and recommended the old fleet be phased out or retrofitted to make it better withstand a crash. Neither was done, she said, which the NTSB considered "unacceptable."
Metro officials planned to replace the old trains, but were years away from them rolling on the tracks.
It was the worst crash in the history of Metrorail, the pride of the US capital's tourism industry that has shuttled tourists and commuters around Washington and to Maryland and Virginia suburbs for more than three decades.